“The Canadian Authors” Meet by F.R.Scott Essay Prepared for my UG English Students

“The Canadian Authors” Meet by F.R.Scott

Prepared by Dr.Suresh Frederick

“The Canadian Authors Meet” is a satirical poem by F.R.Scott. Francis Reginald Scott (1899-1985), commonly known as Frank Scott or F. R. Scott, was a Canadian poet, intellectual and constitutional expert. He was the son of Frederick George Scott, a well-known Canadian poet and author, known as the Poet of the Laurentians. Here in this poem, the poet makes fun of pseudo-Canadian poets.

A group of Canadian authors meet in a large and comfortable hall. These writers are bloated with pride. They have gathered under “a portrait of the Prince of Wales”. This shows how these so-called writers are still parasites and are in need of patronage from Britain. In the gathering, there is one Miss.Crotchet. Crotchet in music is a note having one-fourth the time value of a whole note. This may mean that Miss.Crotchet is a minor poet, negligible writer and a literary non-entity. Her “muse has somehow failed to function”.  The Muse in Greek mythology is the goddess of music, song and dance, and the source of inspiration to poets. Thus Miss.Crotchet never had the inspiration to write poetry, “Yet she’s a poetess”. The underlying irony is evident in this observation of the poet.

Smiling expansively, Miss.Crotchet moves “From group to chattering group”. To cover her incompetence, she smiles in an affected way. “Victorian saintliness” “is her fashion” as she is a snob. The meeting hall is filled with many more insignificant writers. Miss.Crotchet greets these “unknowns with a cheer” – unknown to her as well as unknown to the world. Like virgins, these authors lack in exposure and experience. It is ironic that they should speak of love and passion, especially when they are all above sixty.

These writers talk on “Canadian topics” which are boring and uninteresting. They also discuss great poets like Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman, Charles G.D. Roberts, William Wilfred Campbell and Frederick George Scott / Duncan Campbell Scott. These men are all very influential Canadian poets, who wrote Victorian and Romantic poetry, something to which Scott was opposed. But they are not measured for their literary merits but for their religious faith and charity. “Their zeal for God and King” and “their earnest thought” alone are discussed. These are peripheral issues which are non-literary attainments. Scott emphatically criticizes the paraliterary considerations used by these half-baked authors in judging poets and their works.

Scott describes the party which is overflowing with cakes. The cakes are sweet but for them, sweeter is the feeling of mixing with the literary men. It “warms” these old writers. The sentimental ones melted most early. Literary flavour is lacking in this “most delightful party”.

For these self-styled writes, there is no difference between a simple Nursery school rhyme like “Shall we go round the mulberry bush” or the Christian hymn “Shall we gather at the river”. Their motive is to find a private place for their private affairs, that can be behind a “mulberry bush” or on the banks of a “river” The appointment of a Poet Laureate is spoken in the same breath as having another cup of tea. It is ironic that these poets should feel competent enough to select the Poet Laureate. Everything non-literary happens here.

After lampooning these fake writers, Scott moves on to criticize the plethora of mediocre new writers who emerge on the Canadian literary scene. In anguish, he cries out “O Canada, O Canada”. Scott in clear hues presents how these ordinary writers “paint the native maple” (Country – Canada) with substandard writing. (The maple leaf is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada). These writers repeat the ideas of their predecessors. Nothing is new in their writing as same things are duplicated. 

DR.SURESH FREDERICK
Associate Professor & UG Head
Department of English
Bishop Heber College
Tiruchirappalli - 620 017
Tamil Nadu, India.